Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (19 page)

"Aradia, what's wrong?" Dax asked
as he folded his arms across his chest, making his muscles
bulge.

"Jesus Christ," Aradia moaned
breathlessly, "You are so unbearably hot that it should be illegal
for you to even exist."

He raised an eyebrow as Aradia
clamped her hand over her mouth.

"Did I just say that out loud?"
Aradia's blushed, so much so that she felt as if her whole head was
on fire.

"What do you think?" Dax chuckled
accompanied by a sexy smile.

Aradia didn't answer, she just
giggled nervously.

Dax stepped closer to her and
although Aradia wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his
arms, she stepped back.

She then turned and scanned the
horizon, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked into the
sky. It was comfortably warm with no breeze, and no clouds were in
the sky. Therefore, nothing prevented the sun from unleashing its
UV fury on the populace. Nevertheless, Aradia smiled, extremely
satisfied with their location. Suddenly, she heard the sputtering
sounds of a ford truck, and recognized it.

"Roy-Boy!" Aradia cried out as the
truck pulled into the parking lot.

After Roy had stepped out of the
black truck, Aradia rushed towards him. She then threw her arms
around him, and hugged him which Roy eagerly returned.

"Thanks for inviting me out today
Rai-Rai," Roy said smiling.

Aradia stepped away from him and
brushed his comment away with a wave of her hand. "It is nothing
Roy. I do have one question though..."

"Yeah?" Roy asked sounding
intrigued.

"Who the hell invited your
brothers?" Aradia demanded as she pointed to Al and D who were also
getting out of the truck and wearing swimming trunks, sandals, and
over sized t-shirts.

Roy sighed, scratching the back of
his head. "Sorry but when you called me to tell me about the beach
trip they over heard me and..." He shrugged as if the rest of the
story should have been self-explanatory.

Aradia sighed deeply as she watched
Al and D unload their beach stuff. Aradia was not stupid enough to
think that once everyone realized her plans they would just accept
it. In fact, if there were no conflicts or bloodshed at all today
that in itself would surprise her! However, in spite of expecting
violence Aradia wanted to discourage it as best as she could so Al
and D being there with their short tempers made her very
nervous.

However, Aradia realized with a
shake of her head, Al and D were after all Roy's brothers, so there
was no point in making them leave and besides judging by the way Al
was smirking at Aradia, she was not about to give them the
satisfaction of knowing how annoyed she was that they were crashing
her party.

"Hey it's alright Roy," Aradia
said, "It’s not your fault. They are your brothers after
all."

"Yeah," Roy grumbled, "And I
suppose its small compensation that they being my brothers is not
my fault so when they do stuff like this I can always blame someone
else."

"Like your mother and father?"
Aradia suggested.

"Yeah it is either them or God
because seriously if having older brothers like them is not a sign
that God hates me I don't know what would be!"

"If they were your sons?” Aradia
suggested yet again.

Roy looked confused and asked, "How
would them being my sons be proof that God hates me?"

"Because," said Aradia, her voice
now playfully soft and slow. "The advantage of them being your
brothers is even if they steal money, and things from you they will
always need more from your father. So judging by the way your
brothers look, and dress your father must give them whatever they
want just to get shut them up. I am not saying your father is
cursed or anything, but he is extremely unlucky!"

"And in any event," Aradia added
with a sharp sarcastic glance at Al and D. "Whenever I look at your
brothers, 'God' is definitely not the first thing that comes to
mind."

Roy burst out laughing.

D looked over at them and asked,
"What's so funny?"

"Nothing D," Roy responded quick as
a flash.

Roy and Aradia both chuckled as
they turned to face each other again.

Roy held her gaze dreamily for a
few moments until he too removed his dark green shirt. Aradia's
protest caught in her throat as she saw the light brown skin of his
chest. Similar to Dax, he too had muscular arms but unlike Dax his
chest matched exact large stone like bulk of his arms. Therefore,
with his black hair and goatee, stance, and charming face it gave
him the appearance of an extremely well built pirate. A pirate who
faced danger without a moments hesitation, and made him the subject
of many a woman's sexual fantasy. His green eyes, button nose,
light brown curvy lips, smile and nervous laugh seemed to emphasize
the fantasy comparison even more in Aradia's eyes.

"I have died and gone to heaven,"
she murmured.

"Hmm?" Roy asked.

Aradia coughed quickly in attempt
to rein in her hormones. "Nothing."

There was an awkward yet deeply
sexual silence between them for a few seconds until Roy finally
spoke. "Anyway, you said at our beach trip today I would get a big
surprise."

"Yep," said Aradia.

"So what's the big surprise?" Roy
said with a huge smile.

At least, he was smiling until he
saw Dax walking towards them. This was when Roy started gaping in
astonishment. Dax, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying Roy's
moment of confusion.

"Surprise!" Aradia suddenly
cried.

They both turned to look at her,
but while Dax was still smiling Roy's face twisted into an
expression of fury. Oh boy, Aradia thought, this is going to be
harder than I thought.

Chapter Nine

"You did what?" Roy
shrieked.

"I said I arranged a beach trip
with you, Dax, Tristan, and everyone," Aradia explained
nonchalantly.

Roy just stared at her;
open-mouthed in shock while Aradia kept smiling as she stood
uneasily under Roy's scrutiny.

"Rai-Rai, are you high or
something?" Roy suddenly asked in astonishment. "You cannot
honestly expect to invite a bunch of different hiddens for a
'get-together' and to act like they like each other? It's crazy! It
is insane. We all hate each other!"

"This is true," Aradia, agreed
nodding. "And it is also why I have invited Rhonda and all my other
human lunch buddies to come to the beach as well. According to you,
the first and foremost law all hidden must obey is to make sure no
one knows about us. The last time I checked prejudice was not
generally tolerated amongst the human race or at least not in our
area. Therefore, in order to keep your facade going you and the
others are going to have to act like you like each other to keep
the humans from getting wise."

Roy just gaped at her.

He sure does that a lot, Aradia
thought to herself.

"Anyway Roy, it was either this or
going on a date with Tristan. I figured the best way to do what he
wants without actually doing it was by finding, and using a
loophole to the best of my advantage."

Aradia pouted her lips in the
cutest way she could. "And besides as much as I enjoy hanging with
Dax I would not dream of doing anything without you
so..."

She batted her eyelashes at him to
finish off the job of trying to charm him into forgetting how much
he hated the current situation.

"You like hanging out with me?" Roy
finally asked her sweetly.

"Why don't you go help your
brothers set up the food?" Aradia interrupted hastily, and gently
pushed Roy in the direction of the picnic tables.

Roy hesitated at first. After
looking back at her, and taking a long deep sigh he did exactly
what Aradia had suggested. Aradia then breathed a huge sigh of
relief.

After Roy had explained the
situation to his brothers, they too had reluctantly agreed to put
up with the other hiddens being there. However, in exchange for
their cooperation Aradia had agreed to let them invite some of
their own family whom of course were all werewolves. Dax had in
retaliation called and invited Xan and the other two vampire girls
as well. After all of the extra guests had arrived was when Rhonda
had finally shown up with the rest of the humans. Thanks to their
presence, they managed to keep most of the hidden's tempers in
check.

At last, Tristan showed up wearing
his beachwear, which consisted of black trunks, a white sleeveless
t-shirt, leather sandals, and mirror like sunglasses. He was
surprised, however, to see a crowd of people where he and Aradia
were supposed to meet.

"What the hell is going on?"
Tristan demanded the moment he saw Aradia.

She turned and smiled. "The thing
about blackmail Tristan, is it is often a lot more complicated than
it seems, and a hell of lot more trouble than it is
worth!"

"This is about the photos?" Tristan
asked, incredulously.

"No, this is about reminding you
that although you may be royalty I am a woman who does not like to
be treated like she is dumber than dirt! Therefore, the next time
you try to get me to do something I clearly do not want to do. Do
yourself a huge favor, and don't even think about it!"

Aradia then turned on her heel, and
stalked off feeling enormously gratified. Tristan, however,
immediately took out his cell phone and dialed a bunch of
numbers.

Five minutes later, a group of
people showed up in flashy BMW's and Aradia immediately identified
them all as faes. The group included an exquisite black haired girl
that Aradia had seen at school only rarely. She had hair as dark,
and as deep as the night itself and sunny tanned skin. She had
perfectly formed light brown lips, almond shaped dark blue eyes,
long legs, and high cheekbones and a cleft in her pointy chin. She
wore a glittering gold bikini and an open white terry cloth robe
over it. On her feet, she wore plat formed black wedges wrapped
around her feet like henna tattoos. The other people she showed up
with were just as beautiful except with different facial features,
hair and eye color.

Ironically, no matter what color or
size their hair or eyes were there was one thing about Tristan's
crew that clearly marked them as part of his crowd. They all looked
like a bunch of uppity egotistical people with their noses in the
air, and a disdainful look in their eyes. Aradia sighed in
trepidation as she saw them approach.

Nevertheless, she was the hostess
and wanted to make a good impression so she put on her best smile
and went to greet them.

"Hi I am Aradia," she said
extending a hand to the black haired beauty that seemed to be
leading the group.

They all stopped, and watched both
her and Aradia. Aradia's smile and hand remained good natured and
extended. The other just raised her perfectly arched black eyebrow
in pure disdain, and folded her arms.

Suddenly, Tristan appeared and
wrapped his arms around the black hair beauty's shoulders. "Hey
there Titania."

He then French kissed her right in
front of Aradia.

The others just looked at the two
in amused silence. A few people randomly looked at Aradia eagerly
anticipating her reaction. Aradia was stunned by this, but not
wanting to give Tristan or his friends the satisfaction of seeing
her uncomfortable she waited for Tristan and Titania to
finish.

Tristan then turned to Aradia and
said, "Oh I am sorry Aradia, I didn't see you there."

"Yeah right," Aradia
muttered.

Tristan just grinned, looked at
Titania, and back to Aradia. "I suppose since you are now
considered a fellow hidden I should be perfectly blunt with
you."

"Aren't you already?" Aradia
responded.

Tristan ignored her comment. "Well
in any event Titania meet Aradia, the last witch. Aradia meet
Titania, my future wife and queen."

Aradia's mouth dropped open in
shock while Titania grinned.

As Titania and the other fae walked
to the party, Aradia grabbed Tristan's arm.

"Why didn't you tell me you were
engaged?" She snapped.

"You never asked."

"Don't give me that!" Aradia
growled, "Why on earth would you ask me out if you already have a
girlfriend?"

Tristan shrugged, but Aradia
refused to accept that as an answer.

Tristan then sighed and said, "Look
Aradia, as much as you are unaware of this you being the last witch
has given you an amazing political advantage in the hidden
world."

"Huh?"

Tristan sighed yet again. "Think
about it. You are the last of your kind that in itself makes you
very special and seeing as the real witches were killed off more
than three hundred years ago no one knows about your powers. More
importantly, no one knows how to fight you! In the hidden world if
you truly want power you fight for it. Therefore, no one knowing
how to fight you gives you one hell of an advantage so in a
nutshell Aradia not only are you the newest thing to ever hit
Salem, but you are also now the most powerful hidden in the entire
world."